… Reaching for our limits
Biblical text: Hebrew 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
Complementary text: Hebrew 11:35-40.
Thought of the day:
Faith is the means through which we fellowship with God and cooperate in His plan. This means that a life of faith leads us to a life of blessings. In fact, some believers think of faith as a “more rewarding and profitable” way of living.
In today’s biblical text, we find Abraham being commanded by God to abandon his real life, by presenting his only son to be sacrificed. What was God expectating from this? We know that the God of the Bible would never want such cruelty, in contrast to the pagan practices against which He continuously and vehemently protested (Jeremiah 7:30-31). So why did God sent such a “temptation” to Abraham?
What seems incomprehensible for us today should be interpreted in the context of those days, when people sacrificed everything for their idols. We see here a sign of true commitment to God, the God of Love who leads us not to death but to life! The eyes of everyone around Abraham must have been wide open to the true character of God, a God willing of life and not of death. And to the world it was presented, according to the book of Hebrew, a sign of the resurrection that one day would take place through Jesus Christ.
This Hope in God includes a guarantee of His providence for the times when we are crossing the valleys of the shadow of death or other “dead end” situations, for the Bible says: “And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Therefore, firmly based on this Hope, according to Hebrew 11:13-16, the Hope in the eternal glory of God, many will be able to bear even persecutions – with the certainty that with their faith and their trust in the true God, they will not loose their lives (their “better and more profitable” lives), but will find the true life: eternal life in the glory and love of God.
Biblical text: Hebrew 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
Complementary text: Hebrew 11:35-40.
Thought of the day:
Faith is the means through which we fellowship with God and cooperate in His plan. This means that a life of faith leads us to a life of blessings. In fact, some believers think of faith as a “more rewarding and profitable” way of living.
In today’s biblical text, we find Abraham being commanded by God to abandon his real life, by presenting his only son to be sacrificed. What was God expectating from this? We know that the God of the Bible would never want such cruelty, in contrast to the pagan practices against which He continuously and vehemently protested (Jeremiah 7:30-31). So why did God sent such a “temptation” to Abraham?
What seems incomprehensible for us today should be interpreted in the context of those days, when people sacrificed everything for their idols. We see here a sign of true commitment to God, the God of Love who leads us not to death but to life! The eyes of everyone around Abraham must have been wide open to the true character of God, a God willing of life and not of death. And to the world it was presented, according to the book of Hebrew, a sign of the resurrection that one day would take place through Jesus Christ.
This Hope in God includes a guarantee of His providence for the times when we are crossing the valleys of the shadow of death or other “dead end” situations, for the Bible says: “And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Therefore, firmly based on this Hope, according to Hebrew 11:13-16, the Hope in the eternal glory of God, many will be able to bear even persecutions – with the certainty that with their faith and their trust in the true God, they will not loose their lives (their “better and more profitable” lives), but will find the true life: eternal life in the glory and love of God.
Worship and Thanksgiving:
God fulfils his promises;
God is pro-life;
God demands from some of us, but he never demands too much.
Intercession:
Faithfulness; commitment; obedience…
For the people who are under severe trials;
For the persecuted christians.
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